August 22, 2026 | Read online
I spent this week in Tennessee at a conference called Totality, hosted by my friend Dale Dupree and the Sales Rebellion crew.
I haven't been to a live event in a while, and I forgot how much I needed one.
When Dale asked me to speak, he didn't give me much guidance on what he wanted me to talk about (in true Rebel fashion). My first instinct was to do my Iron Man talk about the future of sales being the human, the suit, and the AI. After thinking about it for a while though, I realized I’m kind of sick of talking about AI and wanted to talk about something more meaningful.
Almost every conversation I've had with people recently revolves around a feeling of exhaustion and/or feeling stuck. AI is moving so fast that either people are trying everything they can to keep up or they’re stuck in the world of indecision.
So instead of adding more fuel to the AI anxiety fire that everyone is feeling, I decided to deliver an updated version of my keynote called Continuous Growth Mindset, for only the second time ever on stage. Ironically, the first time was also in Tennessee. Maybe that state is trying to tell me something. A game of horseshoes? Sorry, had to do it. iykyk.
It's the most personal talk I give. It came out of the hardest stretch of my life after losing my dad during COVID and feeling stuck in neutral for over a year, not knowing what to do with myself. You can watch or listen to the full version I did on my podcast a few years ago if you want.
The core of it comes from a family trip to the Amazon jungle in 2022. We were hiking with our guide and noticed the cut tree trunks along the trail looked strange. None of them had any rings. I asked our guide what was going on, and he shrugged and said we're on the equator, which means there are no seasons, so the trees never stop growing. Rings only exist because trees grow for a season and then stop.🤯
Standing on top of one of the tallest trees in the Amazon, looking over the entire jungle without a human structure in sight, it hit me like a ton of bricks - I had stopped growing. I had spent an entire year in neutral.
That realization sent me on a mission to figure out what the people and companies who continuously grow through brutal stretches actually do differently. It came down to three things: alignment, execution, and gratitude. I built the keynote around them in 2022 after COVID, and I think the message applies even more now in the AI era than it did back then.
I delivered the updated version at Totality to a room of about 100 people from all different backgrounds and ended up getting a standing ovation, which hasn't happened in a while. I'm still letting that one sit.
There were more than a few people who came up to me afterwards thanking me and sharing their stories of how they were feeling stuck or decisions they needed to make, and how helpful my presentation was for them.
Since most of you weren't in that room, I want to give you the alignment piece, because it's the one people ask about most. I’ve shared it before in other newsletters and posts, but I wanted to share it again because I’m guessing the majority of you haven’t seen them or done them yourselves. There are two main exercises, both of which I did myself when I was stuck.
First, values. When I went through this with my business coach, “Family” was obviously on my list, and I assumed it was the default number one. He challenged me and said that if I wanted family to be my top priority, I had to write it down, live it, and ask myself on every single decision how it impacts my family.
That forced me to admit something uncomfortable. All those years as a weekend dad, flying around the world doing trainings, I told myself I was doing it for my family. If I sat with it for more than a few minutes, the truth was I was doing it because I was really good at it and I loved being the guy. My family benefited, but that's not the same thing.
Force-ranking your values gives you a decision filter that removes a shocking amount of noise. Some of you have run my Core Values prompt pack before, and if you haven't, it walks you through the whole exercise with AI in about 45 minutes.
Second, energy. Map everything you do against two questions: does it help me achieve my goals, and does it give me energy or drain it? Protect what does both, and cut what does neither as soon as possible, because that quadrant is stealing your life. Here's the worksheet we used at Totality if you want to run it fresh.
If you did these exercises the last time I shared them, this is your reminder that they're not one-and-done. I redo them whenever I feel myself slipping into neutral, and the answers change more than you'd expect.
In addition to delivering my keynote and getting such positive feedback, the Totality event reminded me of the importance of human connection. I was able to reconnect with people I see online all the time.
There is nothing that replaces being in a room together, and I'm starting to think that's the most underrated growth strategy in our industry right now.
Which is why I'm keeping it going next month at UNBOUND, HubSpot's big event in Boston (formerly INBOUND), September 16-18. My friend Lori Richardson is leading a meetup session on leading during a time of change, and she asked me to join her and share some stories, most of which are coming straight from this keynote. We're on Wednesday, September 16, from 2:00-2:45 PM at Exchange - The Sync, right on the show floor. If you're going to be at UNBOUND, come find us. I'd love to meet you in person.
*Use code GEM-BARROWS-10 for 10% off.
One more thing while I'm on the topic. It's late August, which means SKO planning season is starting for next year. If this message sounds like something your team needs to hear on stage, the Continuous Growth keynote and my others are right here.
Those trees on the equator never got the memo that growth is supposed to be seasonal. They don't stop because conditions got tough or because nobody's watching. Neither should you.
#MakeItHappen
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